He dressed like he had just walked out of Pirates of the Caribbean: loose white shirt, "buccaneer"-style boots, gloves that would have better suited a falconer…he even wore an eye patch. Despite all that, she normally wouldn't have given him more than a passing stare, but he had decided to argue with her. "I'm quite capable of taking myself," he said haughtily. He had an odd accent, like an American who had spent way too much time in England.

"Look, I'm just doing my job, alright?" Valerie shot back. "Ghosts attack, I kick their butts; everyone goes home happy."

The strange man scoffed in a manner that reminded her eerily of the ghost kid. He waved a gloved hand dismissively. "Fine. Whatever. Just mind your own business, next time. You're not the only one around who knows how to handle paranormals." And with that, he turned smartly on one heel and stalked away.

What a wonderful start to the school day. If it wasn't ghosts, it was stupid, ungrateful jerks. And it had been such a nice week... Ever since those haunters from Louisiana had arrived, her ghost hunting duties had become surprisingly light. She had expected the attacks to become worse, but she hadn't seen a single ghost she knew in weeks, not that she was complaining.

Except for that ghost kid, of course. He wasn't around quite as often lately, but he was still around. She caught herself grinding her teeth at the thought of him. He was so arrogant and selfish and…

The sudden sound of a school bell jerked her attention back to the fact that she was late for first period. She quickly hit the ground at a run and banished her ghost-hunting suit. Charging across the empty halls, she wished she had simply left it on until she got to class. Still, it wouldn't do to take risks. If her father found out that she was hunting ghosts again, she'd be grounded until she was thirty.

She slipped into class; everyone fell silent as she made her way back to her seat. Somehow, it was even worse than when they laughed. She almost wished the teacher would reprimand her or something. But, of course, it was not to be. As the man continued with his lecture, she found her mind wandering back to the strange encounter.

Her ghost alarm had gone off, prompting her to duck out of sight and change into her ghost hunting gear. She had been hoping for the ghost kid; instead, she saw a weird spook attack that strange guy. Anyway, she thought it was an attack. She had begun to wonder if maybe they weren't socializing.

She had swooped down to do what she did best and kick some ghost butt, but the child-like spirit had simply fled. While that was satisfying, the man's reaction was not. He had promptly started ripping into her for interrupting something very important. What that might have been, she was doomed to never know since she had promptly started defending herself. Loudly.

Something about him bothered her. Even more than the fact that he reminded her of the ghost kid, there was…something…something about the way he kept his left fist clenched and the way the sleeve hung around his arm. It was almost like-

"Ms. Grey!"

Valerie jumped and stared guiltily at the teacher. "Yes, sir?"

"The bell rang. Class is over."

She glanced surreptitiously around at the snickering teens, then fought off a blush as she gathered her books together and started out the door. At least, he hadn't given her detention for not paying attention.

It was just something else to add to a growing list of strange happenings, she reflected on the way to her locker. It had started with the disappearance of the ghosts from Louisiana. Most people didn't even realize they were gone, but Valerie made it a point to know where they were at all times. Shortly after that, a few people claimed to see a huge skeletal dragon in the cemetery. While she hadn't seen anything, her ghost alarm had started to go insane there before burning out completely. She had finally convinced her father to fix it on the grounds that she could avoid ghosts better if she knew where they were. He didn't actually seem to buy it, but he did comply.

Then, over the weekend, Danny Fenton had gone missing. There was no note, ransom or otherwise, and no one had seen even a glimpse of him in days. His friends, Sam and Tucker, seemed to blame her for it, although they never said it aloud. She didn't understand that; she would never hurt Danny.

More disappearances had followed. People claimed to see the bodies of the recently deceased roaming around. The news had done a story on it after a few of the missing had been recovered. It had been terrifying to watch. It was almost like something had sucked the life out of them. Most of them simply stood or sat, their eyes blank and dead. Others had roamed around aimlessly, and two had tried to attack people.

Her thoughts were brought to an alarmed halt as her ghost alarm started to beep. She clapped a hand over it to quiet the sound, then carefully looked at it. It made no sense; the thing was out of control. It was doing the same thing it had done the day she went by the cemetery.

Suddenly, a girl screamed. Valerie dashed across the hall, expecting to see ghosts. She didn't expect to see Dash Baxter with those dead eyes, stumbling around like a zombie as he tried to catch Paulina. She yanked the girl to safety and kicked Dash hard in the stomach. He went down, moaning slightly, and didn't try to get back up.

"Are you okay?" she demanded.

Paulina sniffled slightly. "I think so."

"Sense and Sensibility, students!" Mr. Lancer announced, threading his way through the press of bodies. "What is going on here?"

"It was just horrible!" Paulina cried, going into drama-queen mode.

Valerie slipped away as explanations were given. She was worried about Dash, but she was more worried about the presence that had done that to him. Her ghost alarm was slowly going back to normal, but she still couldn't get anything that resembled a reading on the creature. Aggravated, she briefly wished for the ability to go intangible as she tried to chase after it. It would have helped tremendously to not have to go around walls and people.

The bell rang. Her fellow students slowly trickled off to class. "Dad's going to kill me..." she muttered. However, defending Amity Park from ghosts was more important than the grounding she would receive. As soon as she was alone again, she ducked outside to change into her gear and took off. She had a hunch that the spirit was on its way to the graveyard.

Sure enough, the closer she got, the more her ghost alarm acted up. She shut it off before it could destroy itself again and landed to creep closer. What she saw made her blood run cold.

It was skeletal dragon, all right. Where the heart would have been on a living creature hovered a sphere that glowed like a black light. Its eyes were bright yellow, and its mouth glowed a sickly shade of green. After a moment, it exhaled the gas-like stuff into the ground, then flapped its bony wings a bit as it settled down again.

As Valerie watched, horrified, the earth soaked up the green gas and began to shake slightly. Within minutes, hands reached up out of the graves, and the corpses clawed their way up to the surface. She wondered vaguely how they could escape so quickly.

Something growled, and she whirled around to see a very large alligator with glowing red eyes. It opened its maw as though to display its impressive set of teeth, then lunged forward. With a cry of alarm, the young ghost hunter threw herself out of the way and activated her jet sled.

"Think you to escape, little human?" rumbled a deep voice. She didn't need to look around to know it was the dragon. It laughed, a sound like someone's bass turned up to max. The noise echoed in her ears, rocking her very core. It occurred to her that she would much rather have dealt with the ghost kid, and then her sled snapped in half. She hit the ground hard but recovered quickly enough to see-

His eyes were red. They were supposed to be green, but they were red. She'd always known the ghost kid was evil, but he'd never looked that malicious. He was almost out of his mind. She turned to run, but the alligator was there. That ghost named Skulker blocked her on one side, while someone she'd never met blocked the other. All four ghosts bore the same eye color, and she knew for a fact that the alligator's were supposed to be black. There was something more than ghosts revealing their true colors going on here.

Well, her sled may have been destroyed, but she still had her weapons. She summoned her energy cubes and directed them to fire at Skulker as the one closest to the gate. "It'll take more that than to stop me!" she yelled at the dragon, running.

"We'll see, little one..." the thing almost purred. "We'll see."

It was with great surprise that she realized she wasn't being chased, not that she was about to stop. Eventually, however, she slowed to a walk and dismissed her gear. She could barely breathe for the stitch in her side, but she had to get home. What she planned on after that, she didn't know. She prayed her father would know what to do.

A shadow passed overhead. Alarmed, she looked up, but there was nothing there